Growing up Jewish in regional Australia

I moved to Scotts Head, a small beach town located on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, from Lane Cove, Sydney when I was eight years old, half my lifetime ago.

Living here has given me many fun experiences and opportunities like swimming at the beach and meeting new people but I feel the absence of being able to connect to Judaism and the wide Jewish community in Sydney.

Living in Scotts Head feels like going on a vacation forever. The town is small, which creates a stronger sense of community. In the town there are a few public areas where most people are found chatting and playing such as: the beaches, the playground, the small supermarket and the local cafe. My parents owned the cafe until recently and I enjoyed helping out. The cafe created a delightful environment for the community to be together and we shared many great experiences over the years. My favourite part of owning the cafe was being able to meet new people and have interesting conversations with them.

Overall, most of the people in my town are lovely. The small population enables special community connections. People stop in the street and have a conversation or pause their cars to chat through the window.

I do, however, miss the cultural diversity of Sydney (especially the various food cuisines available) and the opportunities for Jewish connection as I am so far away from my Jewish family and friends.

Out of the 1000 people that live in our town, my mother has managed to find five other Jewish people. With our family of five, that makes the Jewish population 1% of Scotts Head! We have also connected with Jewish families in Nambucca Heads and Bellingen, celebrating Shabbat and festivals together on occasion.

The main way my family and I practise Judaism is celebrating shabbat every week. We light candles every Friday night, drink “delicious” grape juice from Woolworths, and most importantly eat homemade challah. We also try to do something for every Jewish holiday, whether it’s setting up a sukkah on our deck, or a Havdalah bonfire down at the beach. Over the years we have had many of our non-Jewish friends celebrate different holidays with us. My favourite memory is when we went to a Purim-pool party and two of our closest friends joined my mother, sister and me to dress up as m&ms.

The time when I felt most connected to my Jewish identity was in February 2022 when my entire extended family congregated at North Shore Temple Emanuel (NSTE) in Sydney for my bat mitzvah. My bat mitzvah was originally supposed to be in July in 2021, but due to coronavirus, it was postponed until the next year. This meant I had to rewrite my Dvar Torah and study a new torah portion.

Despite the challenges of distance and the interruption of the pandemic, in the time leading up to my bat mitzvah I became more interested in Jewish culture. I joined in the live stream services at NSTE for the high holy days, zoomed in for bat mitzvah lessons with my grandmother in Melbourne and participated in the torah service at Netzer winter camp.

Being a member of Netzer, a Reform Zionist, Jewish youth movement, gives me a way to connect with other Jewish people my age and learn more about our past and future. I enjoy attending the summer and winter camps every year (although I live so far away) and I try to stay in contact with all of my friends that I have met at camp. Netzer has always been a part of my life. Both of my parents went to Netzer during their youth, and I’ve been going to different events run by Netzer since I was 9 years old.

Overall, my life as a Jewish teenage girl growing up in a regional town has been pretty great. I have met some friends at different schools throughout my years of education and I have developed stronger bonds with them.

However, I have encountered some not-so-great experiences including antisemitic behaviour “jokingly” targeted towards myself or other members of the Jewish community living nearby. This behaviour doesn’t occur frequently, but when it does it is due to the fact that 99% of the people who live around here are non-Jewish so they haven’t been correctly educated on antisemitism and Jewish history.

On the other hand, many people in our valley seem very interested in learning more about our culture.

I feel as though part of my Jewish identity was left behind when we left Sydney. This has made it harder for me to connect with Judaism and, although I have loved living here in Scotts Head, I also struggle to belong within the community here as unlike most of our town, I haven’t lived here my whole life. When I am in Sydney or Melbourne with my Jewish family and friends I feel more connected to Judaism but I still feel as though I don’t belong completely.

So, all in all, it is hard for me to decide whether I would prefer living here or somewhere with a larger Jewish community and a stronger connection to Judaism.